Description

July to December 1941 – Exchanges of letters between the Commissioner General for Jewish Questions, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, Justice, the Prefecture of Police in Paris and the Resident General in Rabat, concerning the cases of individuals having asked to receive or keep French nationality. It should be noted that the file does not contain any correspondence in June 1941 and that those between July and December are few.

On July 2, the Commissioner General for Jewish Questions writes on the one hand to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and on the other hand to the Secretary General for the Police and gives them his unfavorable opinion on the granting the French nationality of their husband to Moroccan women at their wedding. He considers that these are « behaviors intended to circumvent the legal prescriptions » because « it seems that a great effort is being made by the Israelites to use mixed marriages in order to attenuate the prohibitions imposed by the law on them ». On July 12, the Minister transmitted Xavier Vallat’s letter to the Resident General in Rabat, stating that he shared his opinion, and asked him for his « feelings » on the issue. On December 5, he forwarded the letter to the Resident General in Tunis and asked him for his opinion on what concerns Tunisian women. On December 23, Admiral Esteva replied : « I have the honor to inform the Department that I fully share its opinion on the importance to not favoring mixed marriages, which I have been able, on different occasions, to observe the deplorable effects myself ».

On October 25, the « Litigation » service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues a note to the Sub-Directorate of Africa-Levant to indicate that it can take again the examination of requests formulated by two categories of foreigners seeking the acquisition or reinstatement of French nationality : those « who served under the French flags and acquired important titles upon their naturalization » and « women who request their reinstatement in the status of French lost as a result of their marriage with a foreigner ». On October 31, the Minister wrote to this effect to the Resident General in Rabat and also in Tunis.

On December 4, the Resident General wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs because « the military authority has just drawn [his] attention to the case of children born in Morocco to a foreign father, a soldier of the Foreign Legion, and to a French mother who has retained her nationality ». No legislative provision allows them to be recognized as French nationals, whereas if they were born in Algeria, they would be so under the law of August 10, 1927. The case of a Yugoslavian with four children, two born in Algeria and two in Morocco is cited as an example. The Resident General asks for « the adoption of a text making it possible to assimilate the presence under the French flags to a foreigner residing on French territory ». On December 20, the Minister of Foreign Affairs submits the question to the Minister of Justice.

On December 31, the Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote to the Resident General in Rabat to reply to two letters that the latter had addressed to him on May 12 and August 20, 1941, in which he asked « under what conditions can be delivered, in the French zone of the Cherifian empire, certificates of nationality ». He answers him that the instructions in the circular of 12 October 1941 sent by the Minister of Justice to the public prosecutors « seem to be able to be easily adapted to the needs of the Protectorate ». It should be noted that neither the two letters nor the circular appear in the file.